''Acrocoelus'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

alveolate The alveolates (meaning "pitted like a honeycomb") are a group of protists, considered a major clade and superphylum within Eukarya. They are currently grouped with the stramenopiles and Rhizaria among the protists with tubulocristate mitochon ...

History

This genus was named in 1999 by Fernández ''et al''.Fernández I, Pardos F, Benito J, Arroyo NL (1999) ''Acrocoelus glossobalani'' ''gen''. ''nov''. ''et sp''. ''nov''., a protistan flagellate from the gut of the enteropneust ''Glossabalanus minutus''. Eur J Protistol. 35 (1) 55–65

Description

The species in this genus are fusiform with an apical anterior concavity and a longitudinal groove. There are two anterior flagellae directed backward. The flagellae arise from parallel

basal bodies A basal body (synonymous with basal granule, kinetosome, and in older cytological literature with blepharoplast) is a protein structure found at the base of a eukaryotic undulipodium (cilium or flagellum). The basal body was named by Theodor W ...

in a flagellar pocket. The single

nucleus Nucleus ( : nuclei) is a Latin word for the seed inside a fruit. It most often refers to: *Atomic nucleus, the very dense central region of an atom * Cell nucleus, a central organelle of a eukaryotic cell, containing most of the cell's DNA Nucl ...

has a single

nucleolus The nucleolus (, plural: nucleoli ) is the largest structure in the nucleus of eukaryotic cells. It is best known as the site of ribosome biogenesis, which is the synthesis of ribosomes. The nucleolus also participates in the formation of ...

. The cell wall is a trilaminate pellicle with subpellicular microtubules and a micropore. The

cytoplasm In cell biology, the cytoplasm is all of the material within a eukaryotic cell, enclosed by the cell membrane, except for the cell nucleus. The material inside the nucleus and contained within the nuclear membrane is termed the nucleoplasm. ...

contains a single, branched mitochondrion with tubular cristae, a supranuclear

Golgi apparatus The Golgi apparatus (), also known as the Golgi complex, Golgi body, or simply the Golgi, is an organelle found in most eukaryotic cells. Part of the endomembrane system in the cytoplasm, it packages proteins into membrane-bound vesicles ...

and large amounts of glycan granules. There are three types of secretory organelles present. Type I are round and structurally complex. These may be extrusomes. The types II and III appear to be

rhoptry A rhoptry is a specialized secretory organelle. They are club-shaped organelles connected by thin necks to the extreme apical pole of the parasite. These organelles, like micronemes, are characteristic of the motile stages of Apicomplexa protozoan ...

and

microneme Micronemes are secretory organelles, possessed by parasitic apicomplexans. Micronemes are located on the apical third of the protozoan body. They are surrounded by a typical unit membrane. On electron microscopy they have an electron-dense matrix ...

like organelles respectively.

Taxonomy

The type species is ''Acrocoelus glossobalani'' Fernández ''et al'' 1999

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q20685834 Apicomplexa genera